CHEAPER alternative energy to fossil fuels is an imperative in a nation’s development paradigm – in both domestic and economic terms.
Cheaper energy would of course result in larger disposable incomes in households and drive the cost of overheads in the private sector downwards, with all the related benefits to the industrial and entrepreneurial worlds.

Head of the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), Dr. Odho Homeauth, in a well-researched thesis, posits: “Agro-energy and the production of biofuels constitute a technologically proven alternative that would enable countries like Guyana to promote the modernisation of agriculture, offering producers new options with a guaranteed market.

“The rationale for advocating that greater attention be attached to agro-energy is that this activity builds the economic resilience of countries when the forecast is for continued high and rising oil prices. In the case of the EU, for example, it has been agreed to target 10% biofuels in its fuel use by 2020.
“Guyana is highly dependent for its energy on imported fossil fuels for both power generation and transport. The country has only a very modest degree of industrialisation and primary products in agriculture, forest products and minerals contribute to a significant proportion (40%) of GDP. Petroleum imports amount to more than 500,000 tonnes annually, valued at in excess of US$220 M or 29% of the country’s import bill.
These data have been summarised in a recent study conducted by Horta and Coviello (2007) on behalf of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) for the Government of Guyana. Currently, about 36% of the country’s GDP is expended on the importation of fuels.
The scientist continued: “Diesel fuel and gasoline account for 66% and 22% respectively of petroleum product imports. Both of these could be substituted for by bio-fuels in the form of ethanol for gasoline, bio-diesel for diesel transport fuels and agriculture and wood wastes for thermoelectric power generation now met mainly by diesel plants.”

Guyana’s participation in the agro-energy sector has the potential to have a significant impact on poverty reduction, industrialisation and diversification of the traditional pillars of agriculture; sugar and rice. Such microeconomic benefits would also be mirrored by significant macroeconomic benefits. Clearly, any reduction in the alarming percentage of fossil-fuel consumption will allow significant foreign currency savings, which, rather than representing a drain on the country’s resources, would have been re-invested into the economy.

The potential for a cushioning of price fluctuations of crude, and the corresponding security derived from a domestic fuel supply will have significant impacts on the country’s growing and still fragile economy. Furthermore, within a context of global and regional concerns regarding climate change abatement, Guyana’s participation in the agro-energy sector could have significant impacts on the reduction of greenhouse gases and criteria air contaminants through the use of cleaner bio-fuels and wastes.
The foregoing was from a study conducted several years ago, and figures may have changed, but the concept remains applicable – that agro-energy is a better alternative to fossil fuels, even in view of the discovery of oil in Guyana.
The Irfaan Ali-led administration has reiterated its promise to pursue the Amaila Falls hydro project that had been aborted by the coalition government, as well as other alternative sources of bio and/or wind energy.
Oil-rich Guyana would not, in the near future, ever again be dependent solely on fossil fuel for its commercial and consumer consumption.